I have read a lot of reviews that exalted Nittaku's Hurricane III version and it made me want to try it out myself. Under normal circumstances I do not play with Chinese rubbers because when I tried fellow players' commercial H3s, including the Neo version,  I did not find them to be special. I do not wish to disrespect to the people who are well trained players and use one of the Hurricane variants but the Hurricane users in my league and around that level are people who have serious deficiencies in their technique or are just too old or overweight to use springy european rubbers. I repeat, I know there are many people on this forum who are competent players and use Hurricane effectively.

Most people I know or play use Tibhar MXP or FXP and they boost. Through testing the Nittaku H3 Turbo Blue I hope to find out whether a quality Chinese rubber can fill in a gap in the sense that it overcomes the weaknesses of MXP - I feel its springiness limits placement options in tight situations. I also hope to find a rubber that may bring back spin variation into the game where placement a speed prevails mostly.

I also want to see how H8 Hard differs from the Nittaku Hurricane.

The test subjects are: Nittaku Hurricane Turbo Blue Sponge max thickness and DHS H8 Hard 2.15. Both of them came from TT11 who provide excellent customer service.

The first round of testing took place today, this time only the Nittaku Hurricane was under the magnifying glass.

The sheet I got weighs 89 gramms uncut and it does not pick up a ball nor does it hold it for seconds. It does have a smell which I find identical to the smell that a sheet of Sanwei Target Pro Provincial gives off (perhaps also the Yinhe Jupiter 3 has this smell too). The H8 sheet weighs 65 gramms with just the protective foil on but its four corners are cut so I can quite imagine that it could be over if it was a full rectangle.

I put the Nittaku Hurricane on a Yasaka Sweden Guardian with short pimples on the other side.

Initial observations: I do not find the Nittaku H3Turbo to be a rubber that can be played on a higher level as it is out of the package. A lot of the reviews mention that it needs to be boosted to get the best effect and I completely agree with those who say that.

Contrary to some reviews, I do not find it extremely hard overall. It may be a little harder than a Gewo Nexxus EL 53 but it is not as hard as some other Chinese rubbers. It may be because of the soft-feeling topsheet which has very short pimples compared to a classical National H3.

Countering and pushing is okay with the rubber. Serving too but I have not noticed anything out of this world. To me the most important part is looping. What sets it apart from other Chinese rubbers is that it produces  an arc that gives plenty of security over the net (big window effect). However, this only applies if the users is in perfect position, otherwise balls tend to go into the bottom of the net. Spin is very good on well executed loops and several people observed that the ball's flight path is very different t what they usually get from me. The flight path stays stable even when 2.5 meters away from the table provided the user is in good position.

Although the Nittaku H3 Turbo is faster out of the package compared to the Chinese rubbers I have tried out, it does not produce a speed that can be sufficient to hit past opponents of a higher level. Its speed is similar to Donic's Bluegrip V version (although it is a completely different rubber).

The quality of the rubber is very good and the sponge has tiny pores. It is similar to the Sanwei Provincial rubber mentioned above but the sponge seems to be of better quality.

My conclusion after the first 90 minutes of training: it is a very good rubber that can produce good spin on loops but lacks in speed. It definitely wants tuned. I put two layers of Falco Long on it and it very quickly reacted to the oil. Its center rose 5-6 centimeters from the horizontal in less than two hours. I will wait until it gets flat again which is probably a week.

In spite of its good build quality I am sure no serious player would use this rubber untuned. More to follow...

That's all personal preference, not a requirement.

I am wondering how boosting of h3 would solve the problem of control which is observed in euro/jap mentioned above.

Is it possible to increase control and speed at the same time? Dont think so. Hm..

My experience shows that boosting optimizes the way the rubber releases the ball. This is the phase where the control problems stem from in the case of untuned rubbers and it is clearly more noticeable with untuned Chinese rubbers. You cannot really carry out loping strokes with full power because the ball goes into the net.

So even if the booster does not increase the speed of the sponge itself, it does help improve the efficiency of energy transfer which at the end of the day results in speed increase.

i had a similar experience with boosting h3 neo, i thought i overboosted it but after it settled in few days i felt it had way more catapult and control at the same time whereas an unboosted h3 neo had way less catapult and i felt i was driving the ball more than looping.

I've never noticed any increase in control when moving the same rubbers to faster blade. Nor when putting faster rubbers on the same blade. Only going step down in speed i was noticing a better control. In this context by control I mean sending balls more or less where intended without sacrificing power (without being more careful)

Not saying impossible but it really puzzles me how boosting (softening) produces same thing. 

+1. This is exactly what I've felt when boosting brick hard rubbers. Even t05H feels a whole lot better to me with around 2 really thin layers of falco long. Even after the boosting has worn off, I do get a slightly slower rubber with a weaker top end power than an unboosted t05H, but the lower and med gears feel a lot more easy to access and the ball feel while looping feels a whole lot better too. But yeah, whenever I've tried boosting med hard or med rubbers, they seem to play pretty bad after the boosting wears off.

So yeah, boosting really hard rubbers can help tune them a bit so that the overall playabitliy and ball feel gets slightly better imo. 

serr wrote: Would the nittaku version suit modern defensive style? Does it chop better than Euro rubbers? (unboosted only)

Definitely not.

Because when it is untuned, it will not pick up balls in situations where you need to move and reach the ball quickly. The ball will simply drop off the rubber, regardless of whether it is a chop or a push or a countertopspin.

The second round of testing took place, this time I played with the H8 Hard with one layer of Falco Long. It feels a bit harder than the Nittaku. I was not satisfied with the way it behaved and I was surprised how many service receives I missed with it.  My training partner has a H8 too, but it is the soft version. When I asked him how come that his rubber works perfectly compared to mine he said he had put 6 layers of Revolution glue on his. So I decided to add some other layers of oil to both the Nittaku and my H8.

Anyway, I have discovered some differences between the two strictly in terms of loops. The blue sponged Nittaku seems to produce more spin close to the table and more easily. Also, the Nittaku seems to produce loops that have a bigger clearance over the net. The tradeoff is that the H8 seems to produce loops that are faster and with a longer trajectory.

As both rubbers are being tuned it will take at least a week before I can compare the two on the same blade and with the same amount of boosting.

The only other rubbers that come close are the oddities Victas VS 401 and Xiom Vega DEF (57,5).

Why? Because usually rubbers that hard do not have enough elasticity. They feel like bricks. And seem 'slow', when in reality, they are the fastest, most powerful rubbers, but need an equally powerful stroke to activate the high gear. So they are a no-no to the average Joe. But maybe enough booster makes them elastic enough to seem 'usable' for the non-superhuman. Maybe.

Anyways, you might want to ask yourself, why you think H8 feels harder than a H3TBS, given a 6-10 degree objective hardness difference. In the best case, the new H3 posseses a much better elasticity, which makes it "seem" softer. This would be a similar effect as observed on the new Vega DEF, which, despite being very hard, does not need additional tuning to be playable.

Remember, elasticity and hardness are two very distinct factors.

So, if you really want to test these rubbers, you need at least a few weeks to months of adjusting your technique. Then your comparison will be objective. But then you'll also have trouble playing with a Mx-p because it will suddenly feel too bouncy and uncontrolled. 

Update from today's session: both the H8 and the Nittaku Hurricane was boosted with 3 layers of Falco Long a week ago. I glued them on yesterday and took them to today's training. The was still a considerable dome on both of them so I will take them off and reglue them in the coming  days. 

Here are my impressions from today, tested with Joola Flash: boosting had a good effect on the Nittaku H3. The behaviour inconsistencies went away and I got a rubber that is significantly more reliable than when unboosted. Loops executed from maximum 2 meters away had very good spin and a low but safe arc over the net. Any loops from further than 2 meters carry the risk of going into the net. It is still doable but needs more attention.

Interestingly, prior to today's test I would have guessed that I would like the H8 more but I turned out to be completely wrong.  The H8 is less in terms of speed and spin.

The Nittaku H3 was on a Gewo Robles 7 ply blade, the H8 was on a Mizuno Fortius FT. I am giving the rubbers another go during next week after regluing them.

In brief:

Spin: NH3TB > H8

Speed: NH3TB > H8

Control is better on the Nittaku too.

A word of caution about the  Nittaku: it is not easy to use, even when boosted (neither is the H8). I would warn anyone against believing that it is a rubber that is brand new technology and it can yield better results than most European tensors or Tenergy. It is a quality H3 and that is all. The price from TT11 if you have the 25% discount is very reasonable and at that price I would and possibly will buy it again.

I am going to test it with Nittaku Premium balls next week.

FdT

So like I said before, this rubber is unsuitable for around 95% of players.

One can only utilize it well, if he has good footwork, weight transfer, a young and strong body, experience with chinese rubbers, very efficient and powerful strokes, and lots of stamina.

I think you are exaggerating in your assessment.

It is pretty much how I would describe the rubber when untuned.

I put them on a Yasaka Sweden Guardian before putting them on offensive blades. The result was the same, that is, the Nittaku H3 was spinnier and loops from it had more arch compared to the H8.

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ultraspin98 wrote: I will wait for your review. Now I'm using h8 and it has crazy spin, I was considering to buy NH3TB

I think you had better not buy NH3TB, it is simply not worth it.

I have concluded testing the Nittaku H3TB and H8 and the outcome is some disillusionment regarding the blue sponged Nittaku H3. I have tried it on three different blades and I asked 4-5 fellow players to give it a go.

As I said at the beginning of the thread, I found the unboosted NH3TB to be rather useless for higher level play (=if you are skilled enough to topspin from both sides with reasonable speed and your game is not based on lobbing and pushing, waiting for your opponent to miss) and therefore I decided to boost the rubber. The H8 got the same amount of booster.

As I put the two rubbers on different blades I noticed that while the H8 retained the boosting effect very well, the Nittaku H3 lost it in direct proportion to the degree the dome subsided. The magic went away unfortunately. Yesterday it ended up being just as hard as it was in the beginning and it was very slow and spinless.  The H8 was still going strong.

I see the following differences between the  two: the H8 starts lifting the ball sooner and the trajectory of loops is a little longer and flatter than NH3TB. The NH3TB does not release the ball as fast and as a result, longer strokes are required. Loops travel a little higher over the net but dip a little lower after the bounce. This quality went away as the dome went down.

My conclusion is that the NH3TB is a rubber that needs some hardcore boosting to work properly.  In that state I can imagine that it might have an edge over a boosted H8 but given the amount of booster to be used and its price I think it is more economical to go with a H8 or even H3 Neo provincial and you will get the same results. Another thing is that the Nittaku seems to lose the effect of booster much quicker than the H8.

In summary, I do not think the NH3TB is as special as the halo effect around it may suggest. For players who do not boost I think there are plenty of cheaper Chinese rubbers with a similar performance. For those of us who boost, the H8 is clearly a more cost effective alternative of the two.

If somebody finds H8 very spinny there will not be any extra benefits to Nittaku's H3.

In the future I might boost NH3TB to see what happens if I glue it on when it really curls.

    

One strength of the H3 Nittaku is the speed - really great and consistent but playing with H3 you’ll want spin because it is the rubber's signature. When i switched back to classic H3, my FH shots immediately become deadly and my partner found it much harder to return due to the low arc.

From now on, I would only use the H3 Nittaku for multiball feeding because it's very good for that (hard and consistent for short stroke). I wish the H3 had the hardness of H3 Nittaku for boosting purposes. Classic H3 gets softer and softer until it becomes trash.

What are you confused about? 

It's the hardest rubber on the market, boost it heavily and constantly hit it hard with perfect technique and then it's great. No rubber will give you more speed and spin in that case.

But what if floor is dusty? No proper weight transfer, possible, no recovery, it becomes trash.

What if humidity is high? brushing stroke against dead ball, it slips, no sponge engagement due to extreme hardness, again it becomes trash.

You don't even need to have played with the rubber, it's 60 degrees, and hence you already know what to expect. Comparing this with regular Hurricane 3 39 degree is like comparing T05fx to T05 hard (same 10 degree hardness difference). It's foolish.

They have access to h3 blue sponge from dhs. They have a long relationship with each other.

Yes, I believe Kasumi Ishikawa also uses H3 BS. Don't know if it's the DHS or the Nittaku version though. Shes been using it for a while now.

FdT

Sounds like you are new to DHS reputation for outstanding variety.

If you want to play Hurricane Roulette, try ordering the same version of H3 from 5 different suppliers and compare sheets.

Used to use prott but now tt11 has proven customer service but if something goes wrong with another seller I'm sh** out of luck. Tt11 has been great to me and only has been nothing but great. Any issues get sorted out right away. DHS Shanghai factory or the headquarters I get from every winter from my friends who visit back home. So they just buy it there for alittle cheaper than fly back to USA with it. I have had 1 shitty rubber of h3 neo blue sponge provincial/national 40-42 degrees. I have bought a total of 40+ and sold 5 but I did the assembly for the people who bought it since I'm quite precise at gluing now. As for bubbling from boosting I haven't ran into those yet thankfully. I do practice and play alot so the rubbers definitely hold up. One year going strong for someone who got it from me and still loads of spin. 

But for the time being I have officially switched to the new tibhar nexy developed mx-k and mx-k hard!!! 

Sarah de nutte from luxemburg also plays with H3 both sides

Since I' using H8, I will give you another point of view about these 2 rubbers